If there’s one constant in Mount Pleasant, it’s change.
The past decade has seen one of Vancouver’s oldest working-class neighbourhoods undergo a remarkable transformation. Gone are the porno theatres, street prostitution and vacant storefronts. In their place; breweries, restaurants and organic bakeries. Kingsway, Broadway and Main are sprouting with shiny new condos reaching for the sky as new businesses and residents move in every day. There’s even a new community centre and library.
Earlier this year, global commercial real estate juggernaut Cushman& Wakefield named Main Street one of the top 15 coolest streets in North America. And with developer Rize Alliance’s controversial 21-storey condo tower set to open next year, hundreds of newcomers to the neighbourhood will soon call Mount Pleasant home.
As the direction of Mount Pleasant continues to be shaped by those who live and work there, we spoke to some of the neighbourhood’s newest additions about where their new home is headed.
Mauricio Lozano, Faculty Brewing Co.
Mauricio Lozano didn’t choose Vancouver; Vancouver chose him.
The 31-year-old was born and raised in the historic city of Puebla, Mexico, his father a 14th generation Poblano and his mother a ninth generation Quebecer. That Canadian connection came in handy when he was looking for a post-graduate placement.
“I wanted to do a masters degree in food manufacturing and Alicia [Medina], my wife, wanted to do a masters degree in architecture,” explains Lozano. “So we thought we’d have to do long distance, because not a lot of schools do both. So we were looking all over the place…and the funny thing is, we both got accepted to UBC and we both got scholarships.”
When Lozano and Medina arrived in 2008, he admits he didn’t know anything about Vancouver.
“I had no idea it even had a beach,” he says. “We were supposed to just be here for two years. But we liked it, so we stayed!”
When it came time to realize his life’s dream of opening a brewery, the avid homebrewer and former Molson Coors employee says it was his wife who pushed for their Mount Pleasant location.
“Alicia was the main driver for the location,” says Lozano. “She’s an architect… and for [her] thesis for her masters in advanced studies in architecture, she actually picked this area… so she did her study around here.”
The neighbourhood has a ton of creative potential, he says, thanks to the fact that it’s mixed use and bike friendly.
“The next cool part is coming,” says Lozano. “And it wasn’t planned that way. Yaletown was planned that way; [the City of Vancouver] turned the industrial [zoned land] into commercial. But here it’s organically happening.”
Since opening for business earlier this summer, Faculty Brewing Co. has already had a positive impact on the neighbourhood.
“At night, [Ontario and 3rd] is not the nicest corner, let’s put it this way,” says Lozano. “In the morning, it’s a cash corner, there’s a lot of guys drinking in the street and everything, there’s graffiti, there’s car break-ins. Just the fact that I’m open ‘til 11, I have a lot of people on the street… And more people means more eyes on the street and that means more safety and more community, and suddenly this area isn’t as bad.”
Neighbouring businesses are also benefitting from Faculty setting up shop. Argo Café next door recently decided to extend its hours until 10pm on Thursdays and Friday to help feed the hungry craft beer crowd. Lozano is even sourcing some of the hops he uses from backyard growers in Mount Pleasant in exchange for beer.
“You want everyone to flourish with you,” he says. “Everyone is holding hands. So we support each other.”
Matt Troy, Vancouver Art and Leisure
As an artist and a Vancouver resident, Matt Troy saw very few opportunities for himself and his peers to pursue their passion. As one of the founders of Vancouver Art and Leisure, he hopes he can offer artists the chance to create, and earn a living from their efforts.
“We don’t think art should be a hobby, we think art should be a profession,” he says. “When there are no opportunities to succeed financially, the art form stops recreating itself.”
Vancouver Art and Leisure, located in the old VIVO Media Arts Centre space on Main and East 4th, is a multi-use artist run space providing support for artists. The organization puts on three licensed events per month (the maximum legally allowed), which help fund the myriad of other activities VAL supports, including art shows, video game conferences, dance competitions, rap battles, pop-up stores, LGBTQ events, a painting studio, eight on-site artist studios with 24/7 access, and a soon-to-be-open vinyl record library.
“We’re 100 per cent self-funded, we haven’t taken any grant money and were supported only by the strength of our members,” says Troy. “We provide an opportunity for artists that is not based on rank, discipline or intent. We provide a social context for a space where people can express themselves politically, artistically, and sexually, and express their gender.”
“These types of places are rapidly disappearing in Mount Pleasant, so we’re happy that we can provide this,” says Troy. “We have an excellent landlord who’s really supportive. But the same reasons we moved in will be the same reasons we move out.”
Within five years, the block VAL is located on will likely be redeveloped, he says, and the organization will have to find a new home. It’s all part of the unfortunate life-cycle for many artists and arts organizations, Troy notes. Artists are typically attracted to economically depressed neighbourhoods where affordable rents allow them to create. In doing so, they transform their neighbourhood, making it desirable, and inevitably price themselves out in the process.
In the meantime, Troy is working with Vancouver city council to adopt more progressive arts policies that protect artist spaces and allows local artists to create; something he says brings value to the city.
“When you give people a chance to live their dreams, that’s how you create a great city.”
Kathy Schleyer, Fable Diner
It was little more than a year ago when Kathy Schleyer got the phone call that would launch her and husband Ron MacGillivray’s dream of opening a diner into reality.
Schleyer and MacGillivray are the team behind the wildly successful Fable in Kitsilano, along with partner and chef Trevor Bird.
“Even before Fable began, my husband Ron, always wanted to open a diner,” says Schleyer. So it was fortuitous when the owners of the iconic 104-year-old Lee Building at Main and Broadway contacted them about the possibility of opening up at one of the busiest intersections in the city.
“They wanted to see this space evolve into something more than just a greasy spoon, per se,” says Schleyer, who first moved to Mount Pleasant 20 years ago when she relocated to Vancouver from Calgary. “This being an iconic diner location just played into that so well.”
Fable Diner opened in July, and has quickly found a place in the hearts and stomachs of local residents. Minutes after the doors open on a recent Monday morning, the low-slung booths are quickly filled and the room bustles with conversation and life.
“This location is just incredible,” says Schleyer. “This is the centre of the city. It’s not downtown, this is it, the new centre of the city. So to be part of that is exciting.”
While Fable Diner doesn’t offer the $3.99 breakfasts it predecessor did, the menu does include low-cost items to appeal to the working class residents of the neighbourhood. According to the City of Vancouver, more than 21 per cent of Mount Pleasant residents live in low-income households, slightly higher than the city average.
“The hard thing is finding that thing that makes the community happy at the same time as doing what you have to do to keep you business alive,” says Schleyer. “Profit margins have to be met, otherwise we have to close the doors.”
With the Rize Alliance tower (now dubbed “The Independent”) soon to open across the street, Schleyer says she hopes the changes it will bring are positive ones.
“I think for us it will be great. Obviously having all of those residential people closer to you helps your business immensely,” she says. “But I think the area will change quite a bit, and I think it will be a tough change. People are feeling pushed out who’ve been here for so long and are used to a certain lifestyle. So I definitely see that resistance continuing.
“[Vancouver] will change, it’s inevitable, and its been happening long before we showed up,” she says. “But it needs to be positive within that change.”
